1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gas discharge (plasma) structure wherein an ionizable gas is confined within an enclosure and is subjected to sufficient voltage(s) to cause the gas to discharge.
Examples of gas discharge (plasma) devices contemplated in the practice of this invention include both monochrome (single color) AC plasma displays and multi-color (two or more colors) AC plasma displays.
Examples of monochrome AC gas discharge (plasma) displays contemplated in the practice of this invention are well known in the prior art and include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,190 issued to Bitzer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,167 (Baker et al), U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,846 (Mayer) U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,050 (Mayer), U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,597 (Mayer) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,384 (Lay) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,807(Wedding), all incorporate herein by reference.
Examples of multicolor AC plasma displays contemplated in the practice of this invention are well known in the prior art and include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,623 issued to Pavliscak, U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,418 (Pavliscak), U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,186 (Knauer, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,500 (Shinoda et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,553 (Shinoda, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,182 (Sano et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,489 (Sano), U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,597 (Salavin et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,122 (Amemiya, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,068
(Nagakubi) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,158 (Wedding), all incorporated herein by reference.
In addition, this invention may be practiced in a DC gas discharge (plasma) display, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,390 (Maloney et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,404 (Kurahashi et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,689 (Ogle et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,505 (Holz et al.), all incorporated herein by reference.
2. Related Prior Art
This invention relates to the use of microspheres containing an ionizable gas in a gas discharge plasma display.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,690 issued to Roeber discloses a plasma panel display with a plasma forming gas encapsulated in clear glass spheres. Roeber used commercially available glass spheres containing gases such as air, SO2 or CO2 at pressures of 0.2 to 0.3 atmosphere. Roeber discloses the removal of these residual gases by heating the glass spheres at an elevated temperature to drive out the gases through the heated walls of the glass sphere. Roeber obtains different colors from the glass spheres by filling each sphere with a gas mixture which emits a color upon discharge and/or by using glass sphere made from colored glass.